Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Summer's over!

I never finished blogging the end of summer....we took our annual trip to Lummi and celebrated Ainsley and Khalif's birthdays.  We found lots and lots of starfish this year, collected a bunch of seaglass, visited the rock beach and the school.  We also had another little bat friend, but he only showed himself to grandma in the middle of the night and she opened the door so he could fly out and we are going to go with that.  The kids just love that place!

 Pretty rough life they have!
 Playing with the new nail stamper that Ainsley got for her birthday




I decided to have a little party for Ryan's 40th, but I told him the party was for the kids birthdays (since they are all in the same general time frame), so it would be easier to plan and talk about.  It was a good turn-out of friends and family and I didn't have a good plan on how it would go down, so Gloria wished Ryan a happy birthday when she arrived and she didn't realize he didn't know it was his party, but he didn't get it, so I finally told him.

 Mom and Dad's gift to Ryan....corn hole!  We have dented the plastic because we have played so much and I am still feeling tendinitis in my elbow from the summertime.


The kids enjoyed the party as well.  There was a lot of nail salon and hair happenings:

Grandma Gloria missed the party, but came up later and it was soooo good to see her.  It has been way too long!

It has been close to 15 years since I went water skiing, but I felt inspired to go this year.  I got up on the first try, but it was a lot harder than I remember.  My mom thought she was recording and wasn't so you'll just have to take my word for it!  Ainsley tried again with the bigger ski's and did a great job.  She actually liked it better than the learning ski's.  Ryan ripped it up too :o)

My specialty is kneeboarding, so I was very excited when the kids tried it and a switch went off in Reggie.  He wanted to go everyday!  He tried and tried to get outside the wake and finally did and then it was Ainsley's turn, but she didn't quite get there.  It was so much fun....Khalif went and because he is so tiny, he could start sitting on the board...he didn't even have to get up.  Next year should be lots of fun!


Reggie so badly wanted me to go over the wake backwards and I had never done it, but I said I would give it a try and he was very impressed!

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Olympic Trials

We were lucky enough to be able to go to the Olympic Trials in San Jose in July!  It was much more fun this go around since Ainsley was a big fan (4 years ago she and Reggie were ready to go long before the night was over).  We tried to take advantage of all the activities and meet gymnasts and we were very tired at the end of the 3 days, but, it was worth it!!!  The 2nd night was a concert and tribute to all the US Olympic gymnasts going back to the 1950's.  They invited all of them and several showed up and it was a blast from the past to hear some of the names, people that I thought were great when I was little, Phoebe Mills, Kristi Phillips and of course Shannon Miller.  Ainsley scored a ticket to go on the floor during the event and she had a blast with her buddies.  We also ran into some of her old teammates and her past coach that was a favorite, who since moved to Florida. She also saw her least favorite coach from the past!  Crazy in a packed stadium to find so many people we knew.  We even ran into a classmate from her school!

The amazing Simone Biles


 Olympic team and alternates
Enjoying activites in the village:
Svetlana Boginskaya (gymnast from the 90's)

Ainsley spent the week going to gymnastics practice at her gym and we had her birthday party on her day off.  She was very sore, but happy to see her friends.  The boys had all kinds of fun with Aunt Liha, Grandma and Grandma Peggy!

The boys had all kinds of fun with Aunt Liha, Grandma and Grandma Peggy and Uncle Dustin (they took the boys to Wild Waves!).  The boys enjoying the lake:

 Ainsley also had a pool party with her teammates at a place in Pleasanton that I didn't even know existed.  When I hit the lotto, that is where I would want to live....It was so beautiful!

Sunday, August 7, 2016

She's 10!

It was quite a birthday for Ainsley!   We went in with Grandma Peggy for her birthday present and her dream to swim with the dolphins finally came true :o).  It was worth every penny....she absolutely loved it.  Those of us watching got a nice show too.  Probably the closest I have ever been to a dolphin, but I think I might even want to do it one day.  We had a quick lesson and education on dolphins that was very interesting (we saw the birth of a dolphin as well).  It was nice to hear how many of their animals have been rescued, but are unfortunately unable to go back into the wild.  One of their dolphins was rescued from Texas and had seizures, but now that it has been medicated it hasn't had one for 5 years.  We also saw the oldest known living dolphin in captivity at a whopping age 52.  Typical life span is 35 and he looked old and a little heavy set.  We noticed he was different right away!  Now she wants to be a dolphin trainer!


It will actually be really fun to see what Ainsley ends up doing as a career.  She loves her nails, doing other peoples nails, doing her friends hair and playing with toddlers and taking care of babies, so I think her options are limitless.  She'll probably do nothing related to any of those things!  We just want her to find something she loves and with God's direction, go for it :o).
Ainsley has become quite adventurous this year...trying new things and being more open to getting a little out of her comfort zone and that has been really fun to watch.  She water skied and kneeboarded at the lake and when we visited Grandma Pam, she saw the hang gliders and wants to give that a try at some point!
She is still as giggly as ever, especially after meal times.  We had her birthday party a couple weeks ago and after dinner one of her friends said, "Ainsley, I have never seen you like this....its like you are drunk!"  Many times we just send her outside to get her energy out.  It would be nice if she could share that with the rest of us!  It is hard to believe she is already 10...time is starting to go even faster these days.  We love her so much!!!!